Diesel & petrol alternatives? Your thoughts please

Posted on 01/09/2021 10:14 by ChocolateTrees

See - now that is more helpful, actual constructive thought process, and is useful in so far as identifies the potential problems at the local DNO level. But is also acknowledging the validity of the information from national grid. So it actually IS what your mate said, but with local caveats. 

The problem I have with "thats not quite what a mate of mine said" is it's a blanket statement refuting the credibility of the national grid statement, which he didn't do. He agreed with the national grid. But he has a valid point from a different perspective which needs attention. 

If you had chosen to post the musings verbatim to start with, we could have had an open dialogue, but refutation without evidence is pointless. 

Posted on 01/09/2021 10:36 by Rocky 2 buckets

The trucks & vans are here-

Posted on 01/09/2021 10:36 by Rocky 2 buckets

The trucks & vans are here-

Posted on 01/09/2021 10:21 by EmilysDad

Continuing  from previous post ... what happens when your other half has an EV & it needs charging & then children each need their car charging? Will the 60A or 100A supply fuse support 4 cars? And then when your neighbours all want 2/3/4/ or cars charging will the supplies to your street support them all? You can't move for cars on our estate at the weekend when most people are at home.

I love the idea of leccy cars but I don't believe they are the only answer to our problems. I can't see us getting very far with leccy HGVs or planes

Posted on 01/09/2021 10:28 by Rocky 2 buckets

Content has been removed.

Posted on 01/09/2021 10:48 by EmilysDad

Content has been removed.

Posted on 01/09/2021 11:08 by ChocolateTrees

That's a reasonable and valid question, so let's break it down. I have three cars parked outside my house right now. Mine (EV), my wife's (PHEV), and my children's (One small petrol). I only have space for 2 on the drive, but could easily charge all three (if needed) with an extension lead. In fact, when the caravan is at home for loading / unloading that's exactly what happens with the wife's. In practice, on a usual day, one of the cars hardly moves. On average mine does perhaps 200 miles a week, the kids perhaps 50 and the wifes perhaps 30 (and yes we are thinking of consolidating - but thats another story). On those miles, mine needs 8 hours of charge per week at 7kW, the kids would need about 2hours and the wifes an hour. That can be done on a rotation across a single charger, or use a lower power slower charger for longer.

Our mileages may well be very low, (which I accept), but the average national commute is only about 35 miles a day. 35 Miles can be added in 4 hours (off peak) at 2.3Kw (10A) at home, or at a work place.  

The point is - while a charger CAN charge at 7kW, it does not HAVE to. I can set my EV to charge at any rate between 32A (7.2kW) and 6A (1.3kW). My PHEV can be set at 6A, 8A or 10A. 

When away in the caravan, I charge the EV at no more that 10A, when on a 16A feed to give some space to the caravan systems. 

So the real question is, for any given car, what is it's actual use, and how fast does it really need to charge? If I plug in at say 10PM (or rather set my car to start charging at 10pm), and it finishes before 7:30am, do I care if was 7KW and finished adding 100 miles at 2am or 3.6kW and finished at 6am? Not at all. If my DNO said I could only have one 7kW fast charger, I would still have no problem running 3 or even 4 cars from home each doing 200 miles a week. 

HGV and planes are another question, as is shipping and plant machinery. Though there are efforts in all those areas right now.